The excellent Angéla Molnos wrote a psychology book - without a single foreign word. Purism, says the knowledge-flaunting worshiper of foreign words. I agree! says the strict gatekeeper of our mother tongue. The truth lies between these two, as so often: it is only worth using a foreign word if the phenomenon, concept, etc. there is no better Hungarian expression.
Linguistic idiosyncrasies abound in today's language use.
Many newsrooms broadcast breaking news , even though Hungarian-language " newsrooms " and editorial offices could broadcast " latest news " and " leading news ". But not. Moreover, we can also find out from the media which celebrity ("celebrity", well-known media figure) is shopping . As for school-age children preparing for summer camp: "let's let our nursery offline for a week," advises a website. Understand: during camping, don't look for boring things, e.g. on the phone, don't take him out of social life, let the student be disconnected from communication with his parents' house for a few days, let him relax .
I am playing with the idea: if a teacher of our language with such an amazingly rich vocabulary, such as the writer Dezső Szabó (1879–1945), "were resurrected and came" to our midst, in the second decade of the 21st century, what lesson would this great set of feelings teach us about national fear and national love and as an active part of the protection and love of the mother tongue! If you lived here among us, what would you write, for example, about the state of everyday speech, writing and media language? More apt pamphlets, satires, parodies of today's language users would come out in a row from under his pen dipped in bile...
With my mental eyes, I can see this great man comfortably settling down one autumn afternoon in a designer ( well-planned, guest-attracting ) domestic pub (i.e. cultured pub ). Then it would be strange that instead of the head chef ( of the kitchen , head of the kitchen you can eat a special pancake ( American pancake ) or ratatouille gratin ( fried French lecho the the executive chef , and you would also be surprised that it comes with a welcome drink ) are offered. included in his Hungarian dictionary is bacon , and what is recommended for it lime , even though it is nothing but a cooler made citrus , "green lemon ... Perhaps all of this would be - to put it jokingly - too much for him (as we so often hear this instead of "too much").
the host of the show called the backstage in elegant "Hungarian" in the current broadcast of the plasma TV mounted on the opposite wall .
Asking for the newspaper, they would put our writer in front of the Internet. , you would perceive it: the online interface you are looking for just pours out breaking news, which is also a nice "Hungarian " word . He would be amazed to hear how the guests piled on each other with a tangled mess of texts, spewing English words into Hungarian; among other things, they chat about who is shopping , and what a "serious challenge" ( in Hungarian: test, task ) will be at one of the workplaces, if the baby boom " hits" ( the number of births increases explosively ).
And late at night, he would notice at the neighboring restaurant that whoever serves him kapuciner , in Hungarian black coffee made with a little milk or cream, is called a barback tender's assistant), even though - he would think in Hungarian - a bartender , a bartender .
You would also be struck by how many beautiful, poetic "Hungarian" words are flying in the air in the report of yesterday's events: at the fest ( festival , entertainment, gathering, meeting ) everything completely cool ( excellent, perfect ) excellently done ), the whole thing had a trendy feeling ( fashionable style, modern feeling world ). the after party (fun after the bigger event ), everyone was completely happy (the Italian and English word in Hungarian: certainly, one hundred percent happy And you would be informed right away that, by the way, a span (friend) is already posting ( publishing website ( a social website the World Wide Web , in fact, maybe even the ex ( the former, the old sweetheart, girlfriend) also "gives him a like (expresses his liking).
In the meantime, from this "trendy" speech full of strangeness, it would also be revealed that one of the macho rappers (a cultivator and fan of rap music) had a birthday, and as a greeting, many rap ( likers and fans of rap music ) would shout " Happy birthday to you!". Elsodort falu and Ejenes út would think something like this : maybe - without being called Maradi - we can still stick to this wish: happy birthday! And we can sing the 3rd verse of Psalm 134 with love: "May God bless you, / From Zion graciously, / Who created the heavens, / The earth and everything."
And while, as a language genius, perceiving the flood of unnecessary foreign (linguistic) words and idioms - including anglicisms - our famous writer would wonder: to which country fate has thrown him, he would hear several people exclaiming as the greeters, drinks and food arrived at a table in the distance : va(o)u ! ( wow! ) Wanting to say (but their presumably sparse vocabulary prevents them from expressing this kind of thing): Great! Great! Top notch!
According to the end of my vision, this is when our writing prince who speaks more than ten languages would leave the room. Returning to his childhood, homely Cluj-Napoca animal sounds would echo in his ears, including the sound of a dog barking, how soothingly and protectively this "wow" sounded from the mouth of a housekeeper. You certainly wouldn't shout the title of your novel ( Help!
This great artist of our language - knowing his satirical vein - would probably start to reflect after all this: yes, today's man is only one step away from getting down on all fours... Yes, because our four-legged friends like "wow", they like this " they say", this is their natural communication. But listening to all this step by step from the mouth of one biped - one person -...
Author: Lajos Arany , native language proofreader of Reformátusok Lapja, teacher at Debrecen Media Academy
